The UK currently has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the whole of Europe, and even though emergency contraception is available to buy over the counter, the reality is that most children dont have the money to buy them. However, they all have access to their school nurse, who they say is in a ideal position to prescribe emergency contraception.



These proposals could have several implication which must be consider. What message is this sending out to children who fear pregnancy resulting from sexual relationships? Could this encourage promiscuity as was once thought of the supply of free condoms. Should we just deal with the consequence of the childrens mentality of earlier sexual relations or should more be done to improve sex education in schools to prevent children growing up with the mindset that it is acceptable to be a teenage parent.

School nurses are also asking to be able to prescribe the following to their students

Emergency post-coital or regular contraception

Eczema ointment or antibiotics

Antibiotics

Medication for bed wetting

Paracetamol and other common analgesics

Immunisations for those who have not already received them

Nicotine replacement therapy

Should all these additions be granted, the school nurse will be given the authority to prescribe a number of highly controversial medications to children. Again,w e must ask ourselves, are GPs under such strain that they can not handle this themselves? Will school nurses have to seek consent from parents before prescribing medications to children? Will they have the time to fully explain the implications and side effects of the medications they prescribe? Will the children they are prescribing to fully understand what it is they are being asked to take? Most importantly, is this really necessary.

It is no secret that drug companies play with statistics to make certain conditions seem more serious than they really are in order to increase sales, and incentives to prescribers is extremely common in the industry. We should hope our children are not being made guinea pigs to fulfil financial goals.

With the proposed improvements that are being made in the nutrition of children, more should be done to seek other natural organic methods of improving the health of children in schools. The way of thinking should be along the lines of the children arent concentrating well in school, lets get them to drink more what and less fizzy drinks or a lot of our children are becoming obese, lets introduce more exercise time and incentives for healthy eating and not children keep getting infections, lets kill of their natural defences and given them a course of antibiotics to wipe all bacteria in their bodies good or bad or too many children are smoking behind the bike sheds, lets give them nicotine in the form or patches instead of cigaretes and hope they stop. If they dont, they cat say we didnt try.

A question we really should be concerning ourselves with is. Are the schools of today really where we want to send our children. Whether you have children now, may do in the future, or are just a member of the society these children will grow up into, remember there are always choices. You can home school your children, thereby ensuring a nurturing fulfilling environment for them to learn in (ignore people who say home schooled children dont have social interaction, do your research, this is far from the truth). You can become as involved as you can in your childs school, one conscientious mother I know is on the board of governors for her sons schools where real changes can be made. Or finally you can at least investigate the school you send your children to, even if it means they leave the area they live in and continue their education at home with you.

Take care and be healthy